London, New York, Hong Kong, 18th October 2017: FIX Trading Community, the non-profit, industry-driven standards body at the heart of global financial trading, today announced the final release of its Recommended Practices for Best Execution Reporting as required by MiFID II RTS 27 & 28.

The objective of this document is to provide guidance to entities regulated by MiFID II on how to populate the reports required under MiFID II RTS 27 and RTS 28 with the appropriate data in a compliant and consistent manner.

While the concept of Best Execution for the European Financial Markets was introduced back in 2007 under MiFID I, MiFID II has now introduced new requirements on what data must be published to the market to help firms comply with their Best Execution mandate. Over the past 2 years, FIX members have debated and discussed the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) terminology and responded to updates. Additionally, members have engaged with EU National Competent Authorities (NCA) to ensure the work being done is appropriate and relevant.

The resulting document that FIX Trading Community has released, explains which entities must report under these new requirements, what data they must publish and how often. It also provides clarity as to how these reports apply to different scenarios based on the entity, their role in the trading workflow and the trading model they employ.

Rebecca Healey, Co-Chair EMEA Regulatory Subcommittee, FIX Trading Community, Head of EMEA Market Structure and Strategy, Liquidnet, noted, “With the MiFID clock ticking, it was critical for all market participants to be able to deliver accurate Best Execution reports to the regulator in time. By working together across industry disciplines the FIX working group has produced a valuable framework for firms to leverage. By providing the regulator and the wider industry with standardised information on best execution, FIX has made an important contribution to necessary enhanced transparency around best execution.”

Alex Wolcough, Director Appsbroker, commented, “MiFID II’s Best Execution Reporting requirements were always going to be a challenge for trading venues and investment firms alike. With a concerted effort from a broad range of stakeholders from across the financial community, we’ve been able to provide a really valuable guide for the industry and, in addition, the changes to the FIX protocol to support standardised reporting.”